Ecuador: the truth about the “bones of ancient giants 7 meters high”

It is not true that the bones of “ancient seven-meter giants” were found in a city in Ecuador, as viral publications claim, which actually share photos prehistoric sloth skeletonexhibited in the paleontological museum of this country.

EFE checks received a request through his channel whatsapp (+34 648434618) about the message from facebook referring to the alleged discovery of the remains of “giants” in an Ecuadorian town.

As a test, the post shares images of a bone structure similar to a human but larger.

The same content circulates in other profiles of this social network, in Twitter And in tik tak.

“The discovery of giant men in Ecuador has been going on since the 20th century,” according to a publication from facebook that resonates with the photographs.

The fossils seen in the photographs belong to a sloth that once lived on Earth, which is confirmed EFE checks staff Megatherio Paleontological Museumlocated in Ecuador. So far, the largest recorded hominid has been “Gigantopithecus blacki”, a direct relative of orangutans, but outside the human evolutionary line.

Bones from a giant sloth

User response to one of the misleading posts facebook leads to a press release from Ministry of Tourism of Ecuadorwhich was illustrated by a viral photograph of a robust skeleton

Text dated 2018 invited to visit Megatherio Paleontological Museumwhere it is mentioned that the remains of the “megafauna” dating back to the “Late Pleistocene” have been preserved.

EFE checks contacted the museum’s administrative coordinator, Shirley De La Cruz, who confirms that the photographs being circulated correspond to “an incomplete skeleton of a giant ground sloth”, commonly known as “megatherium”.

De La Cruz adds that the species’ scientific name is “Eremotherium laurillardi,” an animal “reaching six meters in height and weighing five tons.”

This specimen, he said, was found in an area called Tanke Loma, which belongs to the canton of La Libertad in the Ecuadorian province of Santa Elena.

“It was found by accident on November 2, 2003. These fossils, along with fossils of other species, were found in one place,” says the museum worker.

In an effort to stop fraudulent messages, Santa Elena Peninsula State University, based on which Megatherio Paleontological Museumspoke out in a statement about the misuse of his images.

EFE